A Painting for the Advent Season

One of the great masters of the Renaissance and one of my favorite painters of all time is Peter Bruegel the Elder, a Flemish artist who lived in the 16th century. He was often called "Peasant Bruegel" because of his honest, epic portraits of peasant life (this was uncommon during the Rennaissance when, unlike the rampant sophistication in today's culture, the patrons mostly wanted to see beautiful celebrities or naked people...)

One of the popular themes in large scale paintings of this time was the Massacre of the Innocents, the oft-overlooked Christmas story where Herod goes Wack-an-Infant on Bethlehem after the Wise Men spill the beans on Baby Jesus (it just never makes it into church pagaents... I guess nobody wants their kid to be on the Infanticide Patrol) Bruegel's take on this is subject is my favorite of all the Rennaissance masters because of the detachment in his handling. Bruegel was a master of pastoral painting, and he does a great job of showing us that no matter what the atrocity, the world at large remains unaffected by human affairs. While Bruegel was heavily influenced by Flemish peer Hieronymous Bosch, he infuses his work with much more subtlety and natural qualities.

Rug Dancing, vol. 1.

The catch phrase amongst hipsters when you ask them if they like a certain musician is to shrug non-chalantly and mutter: "I like their early stuff." Not so with David Byrne, former frontman for the Talking Heads. I was never a big TH fan, but when it comes to DB's solo albums... YOWZA! While my favorite remains 1997's "Feelings," his 1989 release Rei Momo (or "Carnival King," for those of you who dont hablar...) is damn good. Its not a campy "take" on salsa, meringue or the other Afro-Caribbeo-Latino styles it incorporates, its David Byrne getting his own special brand of weird sauce all over some great booty shakin' tunes and servin' it up extra picante. I am not a dancer of any kind, but I would challenge anyone to listen to this album and find their ass to remain sedintary.

The Role of Centrism in Variety Packs

And the winner is ... the Dundee Craft Pack. When it comes to variety packs, I am all in. I love beer in all its permutations and am also easily bored, so there's nothing like a good variety pack to give you options. Because really, thats what makes good booze. Say what you want about single malt whiskey (love it), but why is vodka so damn popular? Options. There aren't many things you should put into a single malt (besides ice cubes), but with vodka, the possibilities are endless. Its the same with beer. Who wants to drink a Stout all night (besides the Irish)?

Now, the reason why I ultimately chose Dundee over Magic Hat (my favorite mid-range brewery, other than Flying Dog- more on that later...) as the best in variety packs is two fold. The first is that it is local (brewed and bottled in Rochester, NY... on the 'other side of the tracks' from Genny Cream Ale!). The other is its Wheat Beer. I don't like Wheat Beer, and the Circus Boy Heffeweisen in Magic Hat's variety pack is just too much. The Wheat Beer is Dundee's craft pack plays more towards the center, and that way I can handle it. They still end up being the stragglers in the fridge, but at least they don't become permanent residents like the Circus Boy.

The art on the bottles is also whimsical and engaging, and the pithy blurbs on the back are fun to read. So ... THINK GLOBALLY & DRINK LOCALLY!

Livin' the Dream

I love films about America. I think that as a subject, you would be hard-pressed to find a grander and more beautiful subject to study through images and characters. The very best cinema in this country has been self-reflexive, inquiring into the nuances of the mythic American Dream: no matter where you come from or who you are, here you have a land that if you can imagine it ... you can have it. Of course there is The Godfather trilogy, Gone With the Wind, Legends of the Fall, Casino (anything by Scorcese, actually)... and then there is this gem, Giant.
It has been a long time since I was so gripped by such an epic tale. I had always known of it only as "Jame's Dean's last film." The shot of Dean in the back of the convertible with his feet up has become an iconic image. The context of that shot makes it even better. Dean is the rags to riches dandy in this film, the poor outsider who makes it to the top of the social echelons but never gets what he really wants, the girl. The girl, in this case, is Elizabeth Taylor, the wife of Texas Rancher, Bick Benedict (a stellar performance by Rock Hudson, who would have made a fantastic Bruce Wayne). Taylor and Dean were both only 23 when they starred in this film, but they play their characters into their 60's with the kind of certainty that makes them timeless in the pantheon of American actors. Dean's final drunken soliloquy in an empty ballroom is disarmingly real, like something that you would expect in a PT Anderson scene. Taylor plays a fiercely gorgeous strong minded Eastern woman who is layin down the "women's lib" line on the Texan patriarchy 40 years before the advent of bra burning...
This film deals with topics as broad as sexism, racism, politics, and class warfare without ever losing its focus on its characters and their own inner turmoil, familial dissapointments, and joys. The cinematography is at once epic in its scope and tender in its detail. The wide angle lens and long shots make for some greatly framed scenes. In one of the films later moments, the family is assembled in a hotel suite, the characters placed assymetrically balanced from the background on the hotel balcony to the foreground,at a desk and couch where a young Dennis Hopper argues with Rock Hudson about institutionalized racism in Texas.
I would recommend this film to anyone who misses a bit of substance with their cinema. Its a bit long: at 3 hours, you get the feeling that this could have been a good mini-series, but to me every moment is necessary. I even found myself looking back and wanting to know more about certain characters, feeling that there were pieces missing still. An incredibly under-rated film. A trio of the screen's finest actors in their prime. Texas. The American Dream.